World Meets Scarlett-Anne
by Adifosett
Summary: Scarlett-Anne was not looking forward to moving to New York, and it was all because of her brother's mistake. She's leaving her friends behind and as much as she loved her brother she was mad at him. Will meeting a unique group of friends change her mind, especially the lovable Farkle?
1. Chapter 1: World Meets Scarlett-Anne

It was barely sunrise when Scarlett woke to the sound of someone pounding on her bedroom door. Groaning, the young girl rolls over, placing her pillow on top of her head in an attempt to fall back asleep. But the pounding kept on, sighing she rises from her bed and stumbles over to her door.

"Morning Scarlett," Maribelle greets her daughter. She giggles at the sight of her daughters' bed hair, her fiery red hair was wound up in knots and tangles, obscuring her hazel eyes.

"Morning, Mom," Scarlett greets through a yawn.

"I made french toast, hurry up before your siblings eat all of it."

"Kay," Scarlett mumbles following her Mom to the dining table.

Taking a seat beside her older brother, she fills her plate with french toast and pours herself a cup of orange juice. She listens to her conversation around her; joining in when she felt more awake.

"This is good Mom," she compliments, shoveling some more into her mouth.

"Thank you, Scarlett, unlike the rest of your siblings I can always count on you to appreciate my hard work," Maribella huffs, giving her other children significant looks.

Quickly the other three start to compliment her cooking skill while Scarlett laughed at them.

Once breakfast was over, she helps her mom clean up before heading to her room to get ready.

After going through her morning routine of brushing her teeth, showering, and detangling her hair, she starts dressing. She had just put on a light blue denim jacket over a brown, blue floral dress when there was a knock on her door. She opens the door to the sight of her little sister.

Genesis holds out two blue ribbons. "Can you do my hair, please?"

"Sure," opening her door wider Scarlett smiles at the young brunette, and gestures for her to sit on the bed.

"So are you excited for school?" Scarlett asks, brushing her sisters long brown hair and placing it in two buns.

Genesis gives a little shrug, she looks imploring at her sister. "What if nobody likes me?"

Using the ribbon Scarlett ties a bow into one of the buns. "Why wouldn't they? You're the best person I know Gen, and if they don't figure that out then it's their loss, plus you have Joseph by your side."

The younger of the two makes a face. "But Joe is annoying."

Scarlett chuckles. "That's what brothers are for."

"Why? Why can't boys just do what we want?"

She shrugs in reply. "I don't know, I asked mom when I was around your age, and she told me, "It makes life more interesting.""

Genesis rolls her eyes. "I guess."

Scarlett tries another bow into the second bun. "There you go, Gen. What do you think?"

Genesis jumps off the bed and bounds over to the full-length mirror beside Scarlett's dresser.

"I love it," Genesis declares, She spins around to face her sister. "How do I look?"

"Precious," Scarlett was quick to respond. "Now come on, let's go." grabbing her school bag, she ushers her sister out of the room.

"There you are," Lucas says, catching sight of them. "I thought I was gonna have to come find you."

Scarlett sticks her tongue out, accepting her lunch bag from her mom.

"Are you sure you don't want me to drop you off at school?" Maribelle asks them. "It'll be faster than the subway."

"It's okay mom," Lucas assures her accepting his own lunch.

"Besides our school and the twins' school are in completely opposite directions. It's either they're gonna be late, or we're gonna be late, and either way, your gonna be late for work," Scarlett finishes for him.

"At least let me drop you have at the trains station," Maribella tries.

Lucas wraps his arm around Scarlett's shoulder. "Mom we're good. I got her."

Maribelle sighs before smiling. "Okay then you better leave now, or you're gonna miss the subway."

Saying bye to their moms and younger siblings, the two of them made there way out of there home and over to the nearby subway.

"You ready?" Lucas asks the two of them once they were settled on the bus.

Scarlett shrugs. "Let's see we just moved 2,839.3 km, haven't finished unpacking, we're entering a new school, where we're in the same grade, two weeks into the school year," she claps thrice. "And it's all because of you."

Lucas let's out an aggravated sigh. "You said you forgave me and that you weren't mad at me anymore."

She pats him on the knee. "Lucas I do forgive you, I'm still a little mad at you. I'm just reminding you of what happened so that you don't do it again."

"I won't, I've learned my lesson, and I've changed."

She smiles at him. "Yeah you have, and it's for the best." opening her bag, she takes_ Little Women_ by Louisa May Alcott.

Lucas chuckled at her and decided to relax while they wait to arrive at their destination.

Twenty minutes into their journey, Scarlett looks away from her book when a blonde and brunette girl entered the subway. They looked about her age, pleasant enough. _"I wonder if they go to the same school as us."_

"Woah, Riley, you don't do lip gloss," she heard the blonde say.

"Oh! What I forgot to mention is that I'm completely reinventing myself. I ride the Subway now, I have kiwi lips now, and I'm just as cool as you now!" the brunette obviously Riley replies in excitement.

Scarlett couldn't help but giggle, she reminded her of her dog always hyper and jumping around everywhere.

The blonde girls glance at her, and she quickly returns her eyes to her book.

"Yeah, let's see how cool you can be when you look at him," she heard.

Lucas, most of heard them too because when the brunette looked his way, he gave her a little smile.

Riley awkwardly smiles back before turning to her friend and giggling.

"A day into New York and somebody already popular," Scarlett teases her brother.

He hushes her as the blonde girl walks over to them. "Hi! Are you his girlfriend?" she asks Scarlett.

Scarlett drops her book in disgust, only for Lucas to catch it mid-air. "Eww! No, I'm-"

The blonde cut her off. "That's great," she turns her attention to her brother. "Hi, I'm Maya. You're really cute. We should hang out sometime. You make me happy. You don't pay enough attention to me. This isn't working out. It's you, not me. We can still be friends, not really," she walks away from the two of them.

"Please tell me you're as confused as I am," Lucas asks his sister handing her her book.

Scarlett watches the two girls in bewilderment, she blindly accepts her book. "So confused."

She puts her book back in her bag there was no way she was gonna be able to read it now. She stares in shock when the brunette, Riley, falls on her brother's lap.

"Hi," Riley says. "We were just talking about you. You used to go out with my friend, Maya."

"I'm Lucas," Lucas introduces.

Riley lets out a dopey smile. "I love it." she slides out of his lap and takes a seat on the other side of Lucas.

At that moment, the door to the subway opens, and an older lady walks into the subway, looking around, she took notice that there were no open seats. "Perhaps someone would like to give their seat to someone older."Scarlett grabs her bag and makes to stand up when the lady stops her. "Not you spitfire," the lady looks directly at Riley.

"Please don't make me move. I just wanna see where this goes," Riley pleads.

"I've just worked a 12-hour shift, and I just wanna see where this," the lady points at her backside. "goes. Okay?"

Riley sighs. "'Kay." she stands and walks back to her friend.

The older lady takes a seat beside Lucas, and the subway starts moving again. A second later, Riley was in the ladies lap.

The lady looks at Riley before looking at Lucas. "It's for you," she places Riley on Lucas's lap, and Scarlett giggles at her brothers puzzled expression.

Riley ended up smiling up at Lucas for at least a minute before walking back to her friend.

It was another half an hour before they arrived at the school, and Lucas and Scarlett made their way to the school office.

"Hello we're here to get our schedule," Scarlett says.

The secretary looks up at them. "And your names are."

"Scarlett and Lucas Friar."

The secretary types their names into the computer before nodding. "There you are." she prints out their schedule before handing it to them. "Your first class his history with, he is in room 109." she gives them a map and points out the room for them.

"Thank you," Lucas smiles before leaving the room with his sister.

Together the two of them followed the map to History class when the found it class was already in session. The two of them enter the room cutting of mid-talk.

"Who are you?" Cory asks them. "I don't know who you two are."

"Lucas Friar, from Austin, Texas, and this is my sister Scarlett," Lucas introduces.

While Lucas handed him the note that they had received from the secretary, Scarlett surveyed the class, taking notice of the fact that the blonde and brunette from the subway were there.

"Oh. New students, Mr. and Miss Friar?" inquires.

"Yes, sir," Lucas answers for the both of them.

smiles at them. "Great. You're just in time for today's assignment. Have a seat."

Lucas takes a seat behind Riley while Scarlett takes a seat behind him. Once seated Riley turns to stare at Lucas.

" Okay, so we... " says to the class before walking over to Riley and turning her head forward. "So, I'd like you guys to open your books to page 48. Now, I'd like you to turn to page 1. Now, I'd like you to read from page 1 to 48." the class groan. "Oh, too bad on you. Okay, so for tonight's assignment, I'd like you to write me a three-page essay on anything. Anything at all that you guys believe in so strongly, you fight for it."

"That," the blonde says, slamming her hand on the desk. "I'd fight for no homework. I come here every day; why can't you teach me everything I need to know while I'm here."

"Woo!" Riley cheers before quitting when turned to look at her. "Not woo!"

"He gets our days, let's take back our nights. No homework, more freedom!" the blonde says, getting up and facing the students. "Who's with me? No homework, more freedom! No homework, more freedom! No homework, more freedom!" she chants with the class joining her.

Scarlett tapped her brother on the shoulder, causing him to turn to face her. "People in New York are crazy."

Lucas nods in agreement. "You think we'll become like that in a few weeks."

She looks around the chaos. "I hope not."

Besides Lucas, a dirty blonde boy wearing a turtleneck stood up and rushed to the front of the classroom. "My education? Or my women? My education? Or my women? My education? Or my women?" he sways on his feet. "Oh, it's happening again, sir." he faints, but luckily Cory caught him.

After class Scarlett and Lucas went searching for there locker, luckily for them there, lockers were right next to each other.

While Scarlett placed her things in her locker, Lucas looked through their schedule. "We only have science and history together. You have Algebra 1 next then you have then you Honors Mandarin, we have lunch together though, then you have Honors English. They placed you in every advanced class they could."

Scarlett raises an eyebrow at him. "Does that surprise you?" she closes her locker and takes back her schedule.

"Not really my sister's a genius."

"Not really I'm just smarter than you," she teases.

Before Lucas could come up with a retort, the bell rings, and the two of them separate heading into their next class.

When Scarlett arrived in Algebra, most of the students were already seated at their desk. She walks up to the teacher's desk and hands him her note.

The teacher reads it before holding his hands out for her. "It's nice to meet you, Miss Friar, my name, Mr. Shui. We have a test today, but since your two weeks late I can use it as an assessment to see how behind you are."

She frowns at the slight to her intelligence. "I'm fine with it being count as a test instead of an assessment, I'm sure I'll be fine."

peered up at her. "Let's make a deal if you get a 70 and above I will count it towards the test if not it will be an assessment and we will come up with a day after you've acquired the information for you to take replacement test. Now please take a seat."

Scarlett nods before turning to find a seat, spotting a familiar face from the previous class she took a seat beside him.

"Hi," she greets politely taking a notebook and pencil out of her bag.

"Hi," Farkle greets in surprise. He wasn't used to pretty girls talking to him. Sure Maya and Riley did, but they were his friends and the models down, and subway humored him when he flirted with them, but pretty girls his age usual ignored him.

Before he could work out the courage to say anything else, the teacher started the class.

"Good morning class, as you know today we have a quiz to assess how well you understand inequalities," Mr. Shui states. "You will have the whole class period to finish the test."

After passing out the test, he took a seat back at his desk while the room filled with the light scratches of pencil touching paper.

Five minutes into the test, Farkle places his pencil down and flips his paper over. Looking around the room, he saw, to his satisfaction, that he was the first one done. He did a double-take though when he saw that beside him Scarlett had her test flipped and a book out.

"_What!? I'm always the first one done! How can she be done before me!"_ Being the first one done was proof of his intelligence, that fact that he wasn't shocked him. The only person that had ever challenge him intellectual is Smackle.

After class Farkle raced to hand in his test so that he could catch up to Scarlett.

"Hi," he greets.

"Hi," she greets back.

"I like your freckles," he blurts out.

Scarlett blinks at him. "…thanks." that wasn't something she often heard, besides fiery red hair, she had a face full of freckles. She usually got teased for them, not compliment.

Farkle smacks his head. "That's not what I meant to say even though it is true your freckles remind me of constellations and I like stargazing-"

"I do too."

"- but what I really wanted to ask you is about the test. You finished before me. How?"

Scarlett shrugs. "I'm good at Math."

"If you finished before me, you must be. What class do you have next?"

"Honors Madrian," she responds.

Farkle grins. "So do I, I can show you the way. That is if it's okay with you?"

Scarlett smiles at him. "Sure."

* * *

"So, how was school?" Maribelle asks as she sat with her children for dinner.

"Interesting," Lucas answers.

"Good interesting or bad interesting?"

"Good interesting."

"And you Scarlett?"

"Good, I think I made a friend," Scarlett responds, shoving spaghetti in her mouth.

"Who?" Lucas asks her.

She swallows. "You know the kid that was sitting next to you in class."

Lucas nods. "The kid wearing the turtle neck? Yeah."

She points her fork at him. "Him. I had fun talking to him, and he can keep up with me when I start to go off on a tandem."

"No," Lucas states.

Scarlett raises her eyebrows at him. "No what?"

"He's a teenage boy that is not good enough for you."

"You're a teenage boy."

"Exactly."

She rolls her eyes at him. "Lucas, we just meet, I like talking to him. That's it."

Lucas frowns. "That's how it starts."

Scarlett turns pleading grey eyes to her mom. "Please tell him he's overreacting."

"Lucas, you're overreacting," Maribelle repeats, covering her laughter.

Scarlett smirks at her brother. "Thank you."

"Fine, but I'm watching him," Lucas grumbles.

* * *

At lunch the next day Lucas and Scarlett were searching the cafeteria for a place to eat.

"Why don't we seat there," Lucas says, pointing over to the table where the two girls from the subway were sitting.

"Are you sure?" Scarlett asks.

Lucas shrugs. "They seem nice enough if a little bit… um… unique."

"Okay," she agrees following him over to the table. She was sure they would be okay with Lucas sitting with them, but she wasn't sure if they would accept her.

When they were closer to the table, Lucas and Scarlett heard Riley say. "Hey."

"Hey," Lucas replies back as he sat down beside her.

Scarlett takes a seat across from them.

Riley freezes before slowly turning to face Lucas. "Hi. You're sitting here. You both her."

"Is that okay?" Lucas asks them.

Riley gives him thumbs. "Can you excuse me for just one sec?" she turns to face her friend and the both of them squealed.

Scarlett rolls her eyes, this wasn't anything unusual for her girls and guys always find her brother attractive.

She lets out a little shriek when all of a sudden Cory popped up next to her brother.

"Dad, you have a choice here. You can either understand that this is just a boy talking to me in the cafeteria..." Riley starts.

OCry interrupts her. "I'm gonna do whatever you say next."

"But this is so innocent!" Riley protests.

"Honey, fathers don't see anything as innocent. We see it as...what's the opposite of innocent?" he asks.

At that moment Scarlett had a light bulb moment, was Riley's father, which was a good thing 'cause she was starting to find it creepy how invested he was in Riley and would have reported him to the principal.

"Right here!" the blonde says answering the question.

"Please don't embarrass me," Riley pleads with her father.

"I'm just gonna talk to Mr. Friar about geography," Mr. Matthews says before turning to Lucas. "You know, I've been to a lot of places. Never been to Texas, though. What part of Texas is the closest to Mexico?"

"That'd be El Paso, sir," Lucas answers.

Cory grins. "Great! Let's go right now!" he drags Lucas's chair away from the table.

Lucas waves goodbye to the girl. Scarlett covers her laughter and waves back at her brother.

With her brother gonna the blonde and the brunette turns their attention to Scarlett.

"So…" Maya starts awkwardly.

"So…" Scarlett also replies awkwardly.

Luckily for them, Riley was there.

"Scarlett-Anne," Scarlett smiles. "But everybody calls me Scarlett."

"Fitting," Maya chuckles.

Scarlett let's out a little laugh and pats her hair. "Yeah, my mom taught the same."

"I think it's pretty," Riley states, "It reminds me of a sunset. I wish I had red hair."

"Thanks," Scarlett tells her. The school bang rings and Scarlett gets up. "Well I guess I better go find my brother. See you in class?"

Riley nods vigorously. "Yeah, see you in class."

After finding Lucas Scarlett and him headed to history class.

When they arrived in history class, the two of them went straight to their seat.

"Hey," Farkle greets Scarlett.

"Hey," Scarlett smiles.

Riley turns to face Lucas. "Hi. I'm glad you're back."

"Hi. Me too," Lucas replies.

Cory approaches the two of them. "Hi. Apparently, you have a better sense of direction," he gestures to his daughter. "than I anticipated. "

"No sir," Lucas replies as Riley turns to face the front again, a frown on her face. "I just have a good sister." he glares at Farkle. "And I'm very protective of her."

Scarlett kicks the back of his chair. "I don't need another Dad."

Cory and Lucas share an understanding look, overprotective fathers and brothers have a lot incoming. Still, gives Lucas the "I watching you" gesture before returning to the front of the class.

"Okay. So, today we're gonna find out if anybody here believes in something so strongly, they'd fight for it," says to the class, he gestures to Maya. "Maya."

"Yes, sir," Maya replies.

"Present your homework," Cory orders.

Maya shakes her head. "Can't do that, sir."

"Why not," Mr. Matthews asks.

"Didn't do my homework, sir," Maya responds.

"Why not?" he repeats.

"That's what I'm fighting against, sir," was her quick reply.

Scarlett looks over at Farkle. "Is it always like this?"

Farkle nods. "Pretty much. This could go on for a while," he puts on a sleep mask. "Farkle Farkle Farkle Farkle. Farkle Farkle Farkle Farkle."

"That's an interesting snore," she comments, turning her attention back to the commotion in front of her.

"I didn't do my homework, either," Riley tells her father. Scarlett had only known her for two days, but she knew Riley was lying.

Cory raises an eyebrow at her. "Oh, really?"

"Yeah," Riley nods. "We're the same, now. I don't believe in homework."

"Guess what, Riley?" Mr. Matthew asks her. "That doesn't make you the same as Maya at all."

Maya raises her hand. "I have something to say."

Mr. Matthews was speechless. "Wow, I don't know what to do, I've never seen this before. The floor's yours, Ms. Hart."

Maya stands up and walks over to Farkle. "Get up, Farkle." she pulls on his sleep mask. "You're gonna wanna be awake for this."

Farkle was quick to stand. "Is it our honeymoon?"

Scarlett couldn't tell if he was serious or not.

Maya makes a face of disgust. "No, you missed that. Now it's time to hand in our essays."

"Oh! Farkle goes first, Farkle always goes first!" he replies quickly running out of the room.

Maya turns to the rest of the class. "Alright, everybody who did their homework, put it on your desk." everybody in the class placed their essay on their desk except for Scarlett.

"No homework, Ginger?" Maya asks once she reaches her.

Scarlett rolls her eyes. "Very original and no, I did a powerpoint."

"Careful there, Ms. Hart," warns as Maya continues to collect the essays.

"Are you sure about this?" Riley asks her best friend.

"I got this," Maya assures.

Scarlett doesn't think she does.

Riley did. "Okay."

Farkle choice that moment to walk back into the room with an extravagant diorama.

"Looks like you have competition for best student," Lucas teases his sister.

Scarlett felt her left eye twitch. "Shut up."

"The branding of Atlanta led to the end of the Civil War, and of peace. I believe that peace is worth fighting for," Farkle starts only to cut off when Maya takes a sparkler off his project. "Hey, that's a pivotal part of my diorama!" she takes another sparkler. "And there goes, Virginia."

"The burning of the homework led to the end of the Homework Rebellion because there was no more homework," Maya uses her chair as leverage to stand on her desk, she holds a sparkler to the homework.

Cory quickly grabs the papers from her hand. "Alright, alright. That's far enough, Maya. I get it."

"No homework, more freedom!" Maya chants holding the sparkler into the air. The smoke from the sparkler reaches the fire alarm setting it and the sprinkler off. "Okay, so those work."

"Is this all part of your presentation, or is this actually going on?" Farkle asks has most of the class flees the classroom.

Scarlett uses her denim jacket to cover herself. "I don't think so."

Lucas holds his jacket over him and Riley. "Why didn't you stop your friend?"

"That's not what I do anymore!" Riley objects.

"Well it should be, look what she gets up to when you don't," Scarlett tells her.

"Ms. Hart, you have detention. The principal will determine if it goes farther than that," tells Maya, before looking at Riley. "Ms. Matthews, please leave."

"I deserve detention, too!" Riley protests.

"No, you don't. You didn't do anything. And because you didn't do anything, your best friend is in very big trouble," replies, he looks up at Farkle who had somehow ended on top of him. "Alright Farkle, you can get down now."

"Well, you're actually quite comfortable, sir," Farkle tells him.

"Thank you... Get off!" yells.

"Farkle isn't going anywhere!"

Scarlett sighs and walks over to the two of them. "Farkle be reasonable. As much as you feel comfortable probably doesn't. Not only is he wet, but so are you."

Farkle nods and gets down. "Your right."

Cory looks at her shock. "How'd you do that?"

Scarlett shrugs. "You just have to appeal to his genius side." she knew because it was the same way she thought, whenever her parents wanted her to do something that she didn't want to, they appeal to her rational side.

That night Scarlett was in the bathroom getting ready for bed. She took out her contacts and tossed them in the trash. Turning on the faucet, she took her brush and toothpaste, after brushing, she washed her face before taking a quick shower.

When she returned to her room, she picked up her phone and unlocked it. To her surprise, she received a message from Farkle.

_Meet at the subway station tomorrow at 8 – Farkle,_ she read.

Glaring at her phone Scarlett texts him back. _How did you get my phone number?_

She received a cheeky reply back. _I have my ways._

_Whatever._

_Are you gonna come tomorrow?_

Scarlett chooses to ignore his text as punishment. She locked her phone and placed the charger in before grabbing a book and settling into bed.

* * *

"Friends, family, and all you other subterranean mole people. We're here today to celebrate Riley being Riley," announces the next day, Scarlett still didn't know why she was spending a Saturday morning down at the subway station. "Now, some may call this a New York City Subway pass. But you, Riley, can consider this a ticket to the world."

"You showed us you are," Mrs. Matthews assures her.

"Riley, I've already met the world. It's your turn," says holding the card out for her, Riley smiles and takes the card.

Lucas looks over at a large black animal before looking at his sister and Farkle. "Hey, this isn't so different from Texas. Look, there's a pony."

"Lucas I don't think that's a pony," Scarlett tells him slowly. Sometimes she worries about her brother's intelligence. "Why would a pony be at a subway station?"

"That's a rat," Farkle informs them.

Scarlett blanches and subtly moves behind her brother and Farkle.

At that moment two beautiful girls walk by them.

"Ladies," Farkle flirts.

"Farkle," they flirt back. "Who are you friends?" one of them asks.

"This is Lucas and Scarlett," Farkle introduces them.

"You have pretty eyes Scarlett," the other one tells them.

Scarlett blinked at them. "Thanks."

So far she's made a couple new friends, was complimented for her eyes, hair, and freckles. Maybe she would like staying in New York after all.

* * *

**A/N: This story will probably have no other OC, it's probably gonna be just the main characters and Scarlett. This story will also be more cannon friendly than any of my other stories and will actually have a Maya and Riley that we like, even though she will be closer to Farkle and Lucas than the two of them. **

**A/N 2: If you go on my page -the conversation area- there will be a poll to decide who Lucas will get with, please vote. Don't forget to comment, review, and vote.**


	2. Chapter 2: Farkle Meets Scarlett-Anne

"Hello, you see me twice a week, once a year, but never in a day. What am I?"

"The letter "e,"''Scarlett looks over her shoulder and grins. "You have to try harder than that Farkle."

"Tanto tempore sumere conantur," he responds. (I'll have to try harder next time.)

She reaches out and pokes him in the cheek. "Idem experiri vos accipere possis. Quam velis esse dementis exsequi volo," (You can try, but you will only receive the same result. Than you would be insane.)

"Yeah but…" he trails off eyes.

"Hm?" Confused Scarlett turns to where he was looking just in time to see Riley sniff her brother. She turns back to Farkle. "Explain."

"Even my mind can't compute that."

The school bell rings, and the two of them head for the history classroom. It didn't take long for everybody to arrive and Cory began his lecture a cell phone in his hand.

"You guys don't connect with each other. It's like you can't exist without these. You use emoticons rather than emotions. You're an unfeeling generation of zombies," Riley and Maya lean over each other mimicking zombies. "Stop eating her." at that moment a student walks into the class late. "You're late, Miss Myzell."

"My fish died," she responds her voice flat.

Cory turns back to the class. "You see? This is what I'm talking about. Miss Myzell has clearly suffered a tragic loss. Yet, she does not seem in touch with her actual emotions!"

Myzell frowns. "Excuse me? I am crying my eyes out. I'm gonna have to leave class early." she makes an about-face and leaves the class, the door closing after her.

"Oh, she actually made it out the door this time," Cory says in surprise.

Myzell returned a look of shock on her face. "I actually made it out the door this time!"

"Dad, adjust and deal," Riley tells him. "Cell phones have been around for, like, ever."

"It'll amaze you to know that there was a whole world before you and cell phones," Cory retorts.

"And it'll amaze you to know that I have 394 friends here," Riley responds.

"And I'm amazed that you believe that," Cory turns to the board and draw a line across the chalkboard. "This is a timeline of all human existence. Starting here," he points at the start of the timeline. "is everyone who ever lived, laughed, loved, and understood the value of life. The cellphone era, which begins right around here," he draws a line almost at the end of the timeline. "pretty much destroys all of that. Way to go, you."

Scarlett surprised a yawn. This was getting boring when were they actually going to start class.

Lucas raises his hand. "Sir, if I may take a different position?"

Cory nods. "Yeah, save me, Mr. Friar. Do I go too far?"

"Always, sir," Lucas tells him. "I understand your point, but I use my phone to video chat with my old friends and to find out what's going on in Texas."

"Yeah. How else can he keep tabs on all the hoedowns and cattle pageants?" Maya jokes.

Scarlett shares a look with her brother. "Hoedowns and cattle pageants," she mouths at him.

He shrugs. "Go with it," he mouths back.

"Maya!" Riley scolds her friend.

"It's okay, Riley. I'm unaffected by Maya's views of country life. As my Uncle Buster always says, "Be like an eagle and soar above the mockingbird."" Lucas tells the girls.

"Your the mockingbird," Riley tells her friend.

Maya sends her a glare. "I know." he throws Lucas a glare. "It kills me that I can't get to you."

"Sorry," Lucas tips his head. "Ma'am."

Maya shudders in annoyance and turns back to the front.

Scarlett rolls her eyes, did he really have to antagonist Maya? Now she won't give up. Well, it was better than Lucas getting into fights.

Maya shudders in annoyance, turning back to the front.

Farkel raises his hand. "Farkle time sir?"

"Oh, I love Farkle time," Cory smiles, switching spots with Farkle.

"With all due respect to history, Mr. Matthews, what's important to our generation will be on this side of the timeline, when Farkle and technology rule. And I will easily be able to make another one of you," he pulls out a strand of Riley's hair.

"Ow!"

"And another one of you," He also pulls a strand of Maya's hair.

Maya sends him a flat look. "Ow."

Ignoring her Farkle walks over to Scarlett and quickly pulls a strand of her hair out before Lucas or Scarlett could stop him.

"Why?" Scarlett scowls rubbing her head.

"I need an intellectually rival; otherwise I'll get bored," Farkle responds not needing her to expand on her question.

"For some reason, I feel insulted," Lucas frowns.

"And you're right to feel that way," Scarlett assures her.

"Wait, so now there's six of us and one of you?" Riley asks the young genius.

Farkle gives a small, maniacally laugh. "That's awesome. The future, you can't escape it, I am Farkle," he takes a bow before switching place with Cory.

Cory takes a spot in the front. "The assignment, you can't escape it, I am teacher! Okay, so here's what we're going to do, guys. We're going to split into teams and discover whether or not new technology has made us better people. You'll do presentations on your findings. And here's a twist. No computers."

Farkle pales. "What?!"

Cory ignores him. "We're going old school. You're going to do your research at the New York Public Library."

Maya turns to Riley. "Where!?"

The corners of Scarlett's mouth curled upwards into a wide grin. "Yay!" she turns to her brother and excited gleam in her eyes. "Lucas we're going to the library!"

Lucas chuckles. "Yes Scarlett, yes we are."

"I'm glad somebody is excited about this homework," Cory tells her. "Now, here's another twist because I trust you not at all. Give me your cell phones."

Riley shots up in her seat. "No!"

"Yeah," Cory replies. "Come on, hand 'em up, hand 'em up." the students complained as they handed in their phones. When Cory reached Scarlett, she was quick to hand it over to him. "Thank you, thank you. Okay, so our teams for this assignment. Maya…"

In a blink, Farkle was out of his seat and on Maya's lap. "What up!" Maya pushes him off.

Cory chuckles. "Scarlett I'm gonna have you join this two. And Riley, you will be with…" his eyes widen as he realized the only other person available was Lucas. "No! No!" the school bell rings. "No!"

Scarlett skips out of the class. The rest of her day was spent in pure bliss; she was going to the library, what could be better?

After school, Maya stops her and Lucas in the hallway. "Hey ginger, soaring eagle, you walkin' with us to the library tonight?"

Lucas looks at his sister who shrugs in response; he turns back to the two girls. "Sure, if that's good with you guys."

"Well, seeing as how you're Riley's partner on this assignment, I guess we should find out if it's okay with her," Maya turns to her friend. "Riley?"

Riley froze.

"Riley, any thoughts on this that might come out of your mouth in word form?" Maya asks her. "No, because you don't have your phone anymore, so what are you going to do to communicate, I wonder?" Riley holds up two thumps. "Oh, look at that. Two thumbs up from Riley."

Riley grins, proud that she found a way to communicate with Lucas without making a fool out of herself.

"And a smiley face."

* * *

"Where are your phones?" Maribelle asks her kids that afternoon. Usually, Lucas was always on his phone texting his friends from Texas, and while Scarlett was often reading her phone wasn't far from her either. But she hadn't seen either of their phones since they came home.

" took it," Lucas responds. "He doesn't trust us not to use our phones for our project on human connection. Instead, he's sending us to the library."

"And that would explain the grin on Scarlett's face."

"Yep," Scarlett responds, popping the "p." "I'm so excited. I haven't had a chance to go to the library yet. It's going to be so much fun."

"Scarlett, can you help me with my homework before you leave?" Joseph asks his older sister.

"Me too!" Genesis pipes in.

"Of course, I will."

While Scarlett made conversed with the twins, Maribelle turns to her oldest son.

"I'm not comfortable with you guys being in New York at night without your phones," she tells him. "Take care of your sister for me."

"I will," he promises.

"Make sure she doesn't get lost in the library… again."

Lucas chuckles. "I'll try."

* * *

That night Scarlett practically ran into the library while the others came in at a slower pace huddled together.

"What is this place?" Riley asks, looking around in wonder.

"This is where the ancients stored all of their wisdom," Farkle replies.

"Look at all of those..." Maya trails off.

"Books," Farkle tells her.

"Books," Maya and Riley whispered.

Scarlett rolls her eyes. "You guys are dramatic," she kept her voice at a whisper. "This place is amazing; look at these books. I can't wait to read them all."

"Hold on," Lucas grabs on to her hand. "I told Mom I would try not to lose you in here, besides look," he pulls out a book from the shelf and blows the dust off of the cover. ""Tales Of Human Interaction.""

"We'll take it," Maya quickly snatches the book from him. "Thanks, quickdraw," she drops the book on a nearby table. "Farkle, Scarlett, do whatever you do with that."

"You mean read?" Farkle asks her while Scarlett rolls her eyes. He opens the book. "Chapter one…"

"Oh, I'm bored out of my mind; let's go to a movie," Maya interrupts.

"Shhh!"

"Ah!" the five of them jump, before turning to see an old lady, probably the librarian glaring at them, her finger on her lips.

"There's one of those ancients now," Farkle says walking towards the librarian. "Oh, wondrous gatekeeper of knowledge, we are travelers from another time and place."

"Seventh-grade middle school," Riley interjects.

"We wish to partake of this information from your great hall of wisdom," Farkle continues as if Riley didn't speak.

"Do you rent phones?" Riley asks.

"Shh!"

Lucas looks around. "There's no one here but us."

"That's not the point Lucas, you're not supposed to talk in a library period," Scarlett scold her. "You would think with me being your sister; you would know that already."

Lucas rolls his eyes. "Sorry, oh, great one."

Scarlett sniffs haughtily. "You're forgiven."

"You two are cute," Maya comments. "But huckleberry is right we there's nobody around why do we have to shush?"

"Let me handle this, Maya. She obviously likes it quiet," Farkle leans on the librarian counter. "Hello, book lady."

The librarian smiles at him. "Well, hello. And who might you be?"

"I might be Farkle."

"Would you do me a favor, Farkle?"

"Oh, you know I will."

"Why don't you go over there," she points to the other side of the library."and... Shh!"

"Well, that's disappointing," Farkle says returning to the group.

"Since that's done, I'm gonna go exploring," she escapes from Lucas' hold and scurries farther into the library.

Lucas sighs. "I'm gonna have to search the whole library before we leave."

* * *

"People used to need places like this," Farkle says, placing the book down. "Now we can hold everything that's here in a little device we can put in our pockets. I don't even need to look out this window to know what phase the moon is in or where the stars are."

"Yeah, well, I don't have a phone like that, I just have the actual sky," Maya responds, her eyes going from the night sky to the notepad in her hand.

"Oh, I'm so sorry for you. You're at a real disadvantage. That can be the basis of our presentation, okay? Wanna read back the notes?" he asks her.

Maya blinks at him. "What notes?"

"You weren't taking notes?"

"No."

"You know, why bother? Without a computer, all we have is a pencil and a pad. What could we possibly do with that?" he grabs the pad from Maya, that has a drawing of the night sky on it. "Maya. I had no idea."

"Yeah. Neither did I."

Scarlett chose that moment to reappear carrying a stack of books.

"Where have you been?" Farkle asks her. He was starting to get worried. It's been over an hour since he last saw Scarlet. You would think with the color of her hair she would be noticeable, but he hadn't seen hide nor hair of her until now.

"I found the fiction section," she says as if that explained everything. She plops down in front of the window ledge where Farkle and Maya were seated. She went to open one of the books when Farkle spoke up again.

"I think Mr. Matthews sent us to the library so we would interact with each other, not get lost in the book."

She scoffs. "Then he shouldn't have sent us to the library."

"Why do you like books so much, anyway?" Maya asks her.

"Tactile pleasure and emotional connection," Scarlett answers, choosing to ignore them in favor of her book.

Maya turns to Farkle. "Huh?"

"I don't know." he nudges Scarlett with his feet.

Scarlett's doesn't remove her eyes from the page. "Farkle you're adorable, but if you do that again, you're gonna lose your toe."

His cheek's pinked up a lovely deep shade. "She thinks I'm adorable!? He frantically shakes his head. "You like Maya and Riley Minkus! Get it together!"

Maya rolled her eyes at the two genius. "Can you please explain what you meant Scarlett."

Scarlett flips to the next page. "Books have a feel to them; they have texture, thickness, and weight. I find the "feel" of books more satisfying and nostalgic than ebooks. I can get lost in books I can't really get lost in ebooks, there are a lot of distractions with ebooks. When I physically read a book, the characters and stories feel more real."

"Hmm," Maya reaches for the "Tales Of Human Interaction" on Farkle's lap. "Because it's not until you really looked at each other and made a human connection that you can even begin to know each other."

Farkle instantly turns to her. "Look in my eyes."

"No," Maya responds.

"Look in my eyes."

"No."

"Look in my eyes."

"No!" she continues to read the book. "There is no connection you can make with any screen that compares to the moment you understand only human beings have souls."

"I have a soul," Farkle tells Maya.

"No," she tells him.

"I do!"

"No."

"I do!"

"No."

Scarlett ignores the two of them continuing to enjoy her book.

* * *

The next day Cory frantically passed by the phones to his students. "Here you go, take your phone. Take it now. Very good. Here's your phone. Good, great, nobody talks to nobody. No more feelings. Thank you. Okay, guys, the great technology debate. Let's boot it up!"

Farkle, Lucas, Maya, Riley, and Lucas walk up to the front of the classroom.

Farkle holds out his phone. "I have always believed that technology would help us fulfill our potential as a species. But when Farkle does rule the world, no matter what devices we come up with, we should also never forget what we can do with a pencil, a piece of paper and our own imaginations." he takes out Maya's drawing of the night sky. "I've been keeping this in my pocket where my phone used to be. I keep looking at it. I'm fine."

Maya gives him a small smile. "Thanks, Farkle."

Farkle smiles back at her, staring deep in her eyes. "Look in my eyes."

Maya's smile turned flat. "No"

Farkle lets out a disgruntled sigh before turning to Scarlett. "Do you think you can give me a recommendation for a book."

Scarlett's eyes widen. "You wanna read a book? Like in person?"

"I did say we should never forget what we can do with a piece of paper and our imagination."

Scarlett stares deep in his eyes, Farkle stares back. "Sure."

Riley steps forward, 'causing Farkle and Scarlett to turn away from each other.

"I thought my whole life was in my phone, but it turns out that I don't really have any friends in here," Riley points at her phone. "And you don't need your phone to connect with your real friends."

Lucas stepped up beside her. "Allow us to demonstrate."

Riley turns her body to face him. "Hi."

"Hi."

Afterschool Scarlett catches up to Farkle. "Farkle, wait!"

He stops in his tracks and swivels to see her. "Yeah."

"Were you serious about me recommending you a book?"

"I was."

She hesitates before taking out a book. It was a bit worn out but obviously, well-taken care of. "Here."

Farkle takes the book from her. "Chronicles of the Red King: The Secret Kingdom," he reads.

"Yeah, it's a pretty good book. I think you might like it. I have to go now Lucas is waiting for me. I'll see you Monday!" with that she scurries down the hall.

Humming to himself, Farkle flipped the book around before opening it. "Prologue: My name is Charlie Bone. I am thirteen years old…"

* * *

**A/N: It's been I think two, three months since I updated this story, I hope you guys enjoyed it. Again the poll for who Lucas should end up with is closed, and since it's a public vote and not private, I'll announce it here. Maya won by two votes; she had 53% of the vote while Riley received 47% of the votes, so it was a close call. This is not a Maya, Josh story, so if you don't like that, stop reading.**


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